7 Smart Ways Paper Can Make Your Day More Productive

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A lot of the world may be digital, but paper can still boost productivity in your daily routine in unexpected ways. Paper can actually help make reaching the goals on your to-do list easier. Check out a few reasons going analog can make your day even more productive.

1. WRITING LONGHAND MIGHT BE MORE STIMULATING THAN TYPING.

If you do most of your composing on a laptop, you might be missing out on a key benefit of writing your work or your thoughts down on paper. Studies have shown that writing with ink stimulates the Reticular Activating System (RAS), the area of the brain that filters information. By writing on paper, you might find yourself concentrating more.

2. IT MAKES OFFICE SHARING EASIER.

Office notes, memos, and documentation are often passed around via email or a shared-space cloud system, but there’s a benefit to passing out hard copies. Printed documents can be marked up easily and scanned more quickly than scrolling through pages on a screen.

3. A PAPER PLANNER MIGHT BE SUPERIOR.

Cell phones offer a variety of apps to keep track of your event calendar, but that can be as much a burden as a benefit. Spread across multiple apps, you need to open different icons for appointments, note-taking, or work events. A paper planner removes that shuffling, allowing you to jot down ideas, reminders, and dates in one easy package. Even if you’re committed to a monthly digital calendar, having a quick-reference paper source for the upcoming week can help you keep things straight.

4. IT’S USUALLY FASTER.

The speediest Wi-Fi and most responsive texting keyboard still pale in comparison to writing by hand, which offers no barrier between the tip of your pen and paper. For taking notes or jotting down thoughts that don’t need to be emailed or communicated, having a notebook handy could save minutes—and cumulatively, hours—off your work shifts.

5. IT REDUCES DISTRACTIONS.

Tech devices can do pretty much everything, which means they also have an infinite number of ways of distracting you. A notebook or notepad will never interrupt your thoughts with a call or notify you of incoming texts, allowing you to focus on the task at hand.

6. YOU MIGHT LEARN MORE ON PAPER.

Studies have demonstrated that college students taking notes on paper instead of typing them on a laptop tend to retain more information. It’s believed that the act of writing and interpreting content instead of rote transcription leads to more knowledge retention.

7. PAPER IS A VISUAL REMINDER.

While email alerts can be ignored or forgotten, paper documents, bills, and other materials are tangible reminders of your commitments. Keeping them on your desk can be a visual push to get things done.

Paper can help make your day more efficient and productive, but its benefits don’t stop there. To learn more about what paper can do for you, visit howlifeunfolds.com/productivity.

This Smart Accessory Converts Your Instant Pot Into an Air Fryer

If you can make a recipe in a slow cooker, Dutch oven, or rice cooker, you can likely adapt it for an Instant Pot. Now, this all-in-one cooker can be converted into an air fryer with one handy accessory.

This Instant Pot air fryer lid—currently available on Amazon for $80—adds six new cooking functions to your 6-quart Instant Pot. You can select the air fry setting to get food hot and crispy fast, using as little as 2 tablespoons of oil. Other options include roast, bake, broil, dehydrate, and reheat.

Many dishes you would prepare in the oven or on the stovetop can be made in your Instant Pot when you switch out the lids. Chicken wings, French fries, and onion rings are just a few of the possibilities mentioned in the product description. And if you're used to frying being a hot, arduous process, this lid works without consuming a ton of energy or heating up your kitchen.

The lid comes with a multi-level air fry basket, a broiling and dehydrating tray, and a protective pad and storage cover. Check it out on Amazon.

For more clever ways to use your Instant Pot, take a look at these recipes.

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6 Benefits of Planning Your Week on Paper

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With digital appointment calendars available everywhere from your laptop to your cell to your email account, it’s easy to dismiss the idea of jotting down obligations on an analog sheet of paper. But you might want to consider putting down your device and picking up a pen. Take a look at a few reasons why keeping an old-school to-do list can be more productive than the digital alternatives.

1. Writing helps you remember more.

Typing is an automatic process. We can do it without retaining much information. But writing things out by hand is more engaging. If you have a doctor’s appointment at 2 p.m. on a Thursday, you’re much more likely to remember that if you write it down than if you typed it into a digital planner.

2. You can put everything in one place.

Apps are undeniably useful, but they’re also very fragmented. You might have one app for note-taking and another for day-and-date appointments. You’ll soon find yourself bouncing between programs to keep track of your daily obligations. With paper, you can keep everything you need to accomplish in one convenient space.

3. You can keep track of both short and long-term goals.

People tend to think of planners as ways to remember appointments, but some planners—often called lifelong planners—allow you to engage in long-term scheduling. You may, for example, want to plan on running a certain number of miles six months from now. These task-driven entries allow you to keep track of what you want to accomplish and then take the necessary steps toward your goal.

4. Crossing off completed tasks is satisfying.

There’s a tangible sense of achievement when you cross off an appointment on a physical piece of paper that just isn’t the same in an app. Drawing a line through a task can offer a sense of satisfaction and can motivate you to tend to the next item. You can also use a style of planner known as a “bullet journal” that uses a key to identify each step in a given task. If your goal is to clean the house, a bulleted list may include your bathroom, bedroom, and attic. For more involved tasks, breaking them up into manageable chunks lets you focus on one at a time and helps you understand how much progress you’ve made.

5. You can reflect on your activities.

Paper planners allow for a measure of reflection. Let’s say you felt the previous two weeks were especially hectic. A quick glance at your planner can tell you how many obligations you had and where you might be able to reorganize your schedule. Digital planners are often ephemeral—they’re made to notify you, not examine your life. Paper not only tells you what you’ve been doing with your time, but also how to save more of it by discarding activities that affect your productivity.

6. There are no distractions.

Opening a calendar app can be a little dangerous. Elsewhere on your phone, games, videos, and other distractions can pull you away from your other responsibilities. Paper offers no such temptations. It’s there to record information in the most efficient and productive way possible.

Paper can help make your day more efficient and productive, but its benefits don’t stop there. To learn more about what paper can do for your organizational skills, visit howlifeunfolds.com/planners.